ISQua's COVID19 Activities and Updates

The International Society for Quality in Healthcare (ISQua) and Planetree International participated in a ‘Pop-Up’ Coalition of over 60 organizations to Preserve Family Presence. The international gro...

PERSON-CENTERED GUIDELINES FOR PRESERVING FAMILY PRESENCE IN CHALLENGING TIMES

Featured COVID-19 Resources

The DAP Toolset provides information to all at-risk organisations so they can continue to provide qualitative and resilient care for those in need while avoiding patient distress and employee burnout through tailored, validated recommendations and bold, digital health solutions during and beyond the pandemic.

The playbook is meant to be a useful resource to help country, subnational and city governments decision-makers manage and adapt their public health response to COVID-19. The Adaptive Response approach provides a framework for dynamically adapting the essential activities of the response as the epidemic progresses along the epidemic curve. The Adaptive Response graphic visualizes the epidemic curve, response phases and essential activities.

This strategic preparedness and response plan outlines the public health measures that the international community stands ready to provide to support all countries to prepare for and respond to COVID-19

Resources from around the world on COVID-19

We have collated resources from around the world in order to help provide the most up to date information to the healthcare community.
Below you will find links to webinars, articles, research papers, recordings, podcasts, and other research portals. These resources will be updated regularly.

As businesses start to consider bringing staff back into work premises, a number of issues need to be considered for the safety of everyone entering the building.

This brief document is intended to give business owners and managers an outline of the main areas that need to be considered concerning both safe working practices and the assessment of building services.

On 4 May 2020 a 13-strong committee convened by former UK government Chief Scientific Adviser Sir David King discussed some aspects of the science behind the UK strategy in a two and a half hour meeting. Leading experts in public health, epidemiology, primary care, virology, mathematical modelling, and social and health policy, raised ideas and issues for consideration which we are pleased to share.

We recognise the enormous efforts of many in the development of new vaccines and therapies, which may be critical to long term control of this pandemic. Our report does not aim to critique such work. Rather, we recognise that such solutions will take time and will still require an appropriate public health infrastructure to maximise their benefit. This is the focus of our first report and the meeting aimed to offer some constructive ideas to the governments of the UK and the devolved nations about how best to tackle this crisis, to save lives, suppress the coronavirus and get the economy moving again.

How to ensure the health and safety of workers when they come back to the workplace? This important question is on the minds of many employers as EU countries plan or execute a progressive return to work after coronavirus. In response, the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has issued today guidance on coming back to work.

The discussion about exit strategies has largely focused on two capabilities that will be needed to prevent new outbreaks of infections once people go back to work — extensive testing to spot new infections and smartphone apps that can provide a record of an infected person’s recent locations.

With the first wave of infections from the Covid-19 pandemic cresting in much of the country, American political and business leaders rightly are considering plans to reopen the economy. This Action Plan is intended to serve as a resource guide for that all-important project

With lockdown measures in place around the world to fight the coronavirus and relieve stretched health systems, some countries are now considering deconfinement scenarios to enable people to go back to school and work. “Test, track and trace” strategies have shown promising results and may prove vital for suppressing the disease, though they raise concerns about privacy and data protection.

Do you have a role in workforce, occupational health, organisational development, leadership, trade union support or other area that is supporting the wellbeing of our NHS people during and following the Covid-19 response?

You are very welcome to join NHS England and Improvement’s weekly virtual expert sessions! The sessions will be held every Wednesday between 4pm and 5pm (GMT)

In these extraordinary and challenging times we are aware that many services have paused Schwartz Rounds (to support physical distancing requirements and workloads). Cognisant of the many requests for online Schwartz Rounds (this is not possible) the Point of Care Foundation have developed a new ‘Team Time’ reflective storytelling approach based on the learning from Schwartz Rounds that our existing trained clinical leads and facilitators might like to consider. You can find out more about ‘Team Time’ at https://www.pointofcarefoundation.org.uk/blog/team-time-reflecting-together-on-the-covid-crisis/

The COVID-19 pandemic has created new clinical ethics challenges for clinicians. Public health considerations are shaping individual patient care. Situations of resource scarcity have brought fair allocation into the foreground of clinical practice. Clinicians’ personal risk of infection has generated difficult ethical challenges. This online course aims to provide structured ways of navigating the clinical ethics challenges generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It incorporates short discussions of key ethical issues and concepts, with practical ethics tools for decision-making. http://mdhs-study.unimelb.edu.au/short-courses/mms-short-courses/clinical-ethics-and-covid-19/overview

Santa Fe Institute Complexity Explorer

Lecture: Preventing the Next Pandemic

An introduction to influenza mitigation strategies and pandemic forecasting with Dr. Lauren Ancel Meyers. Participants will learn about basic epidemiology concepts, such as the basic reproduction number, and how these are affected by the structure of the networks in which we live. Dr. Meyers presented the lectures in this module in September 2019, at the start of flu season in the US and approximately three months before the first cases of COVID-19 were recognized in China. https://www.complexityexplorer.org/courses/107-lecture-pandemics

Future Learn and The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM)

COVID-19: Tackling the Novel Coronavirus - What is COVID-19 and how might the outbreak affect you? Find out more about coronavirus and explore its worldwide implications. Free online course available in English with translations available in Chinese, Spanish (ES), Portuguese (BR), French and Italian: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/covid19-novel-coronavirus

The following guidelines for preserving family presence were co-developed by an international, multi-stakeholder “pop-up” coalition including patient, resident, family and elder advocates, experts in quality, safety and infection control, clinicians, policymakers, and healthcare executives from a variety of care settings. These recommendations for family presence across the continuum of care reflect the lived experiences of many who have been, in the moment, wrestling with and addressing the critical nature of this issue.

"In an era where patient centered care is valued and collaboration with people with lived experience is expected, the COVID-19 crisis presents significant tensions between patient and family centred care, patient safety, provider safety and infection control. We are hearing from patient partners that there has been a marked decrease in authentic patient engagement and partnership across the system as the pandemic evolved and healthcare organizations responded."

The fear of dying alone is nearly universal — a fact of which anyone who’s taken care of a critically ill patient is acutely aware. So we sometimes go to great lengths to give patients just a little more time for family members to arrive and say their goodbyes. One aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic that has been particularly difficult is that instead of our usual promise that “We’ll do everything we can to keep him alive until you get here,” we find ourselves telling families, “Because of hospital policy, we cannot allow visitors at this time.”

The COVID-19 pandemic raises particular challenges for care home residents, their families and the staff that look after them. This guidance has been developed to help care home staff and NHS staff who work with them to support residents through the pandemic.

We all know that COVID-19 is deadly, especially for seniors. We’ve been told to socially distance, wash hands and wear a mask. As a Geriatrician (physician specializing in the care of seniors), Dr Warren has been upset that there has been very little expert and practical advice about what to do if you are a caregiver for a senior.How can you physically distance and still provide care?How do you keep a frail elderly person from becoming more frail while sheltered at home?What about the emotional stress for both the senior and the caregiverHow do we combat isolation and boredom?

Drawing on research, best practice guidelines and expert clinical opinions, the COVID Trauma Response Working Group has created rapid guidance for planners putting in place psychological support for staff in the early stages of dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.

Do you have a role in workforce, occupational health, organisational development, leadership, trade union support or other area that is supporting the wellbeing of our NHS people during and following the Covid-19 response?

You are very welcome to join NHS England and Improvement’s weekly virtual expert sessions! The sessions will be held every Wednesday between 4pm and 5pm (GMT)

This CIPR Public Services Guide on Communicating the death of a colleague, elected representative or volunteer from Coronavirus (COVID-19) provides guidance to assist managers and others faced with the difficult situation of a colleague dying. It outlines steps an organisation, the communications service, and its employees should take following the death of a colleague.

“We at CHFG have been listening to frontline staff in the UK and abroad to assess how we might support people through the current emergency. Many of our team have experience in high-pressure, high-stakes situations, the science of human factors and non-technical skills. The key human factors messages we want to share can be found in a PDF we have prepared.”

The language of compassion and love has traditionally been the language of poetry and literature. Recent advances in science have helped bring a scientific approach to considering compassion and love, with advances coming in the areas of neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior. Although epidemiology is commonly defined as the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases, it has much to offer in terms of compassion and love.

During this rapidly evolving and unprecedented pandemic, healthcare teams are working tirelessly to provide optimal care for patients and to safeguard their communities. As the situation becomes more serious in some regions, many healthcare organizations are reassessing their customary approach to family presence and visitation.

Given the nature of COVID-19, which is known to spread easily especially among the ill and the elderly, and can be transmitted by individuals who are asymptomatic, it is prudent to introduce temporary measures for managing family presence in a way that supports the need for physical distancing.

Here you will find examples of caring communication in a variety of situations people in healthcare are encountering today. These examples are not intended to be scripts. Instead, they illustrate what it might sound like to deliver your messages in a caring manner while tending to the many tasks that must get done.

Helen Riess, M.D., Founder, CEO of Empathetics, Inc. and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains that helping each other is what brings us together and enlivens our spirit and our communities, and it is needed now more than ever, locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.

These are the handsThat touch us firstFeel your headFind your pulseMake your bed— Michael Rosen, These are the hands: poems from the heart of the NHSThese are the hands of health and care staff who dedicate their lives to caring for others. And who are now committed to caring for their communities during a grave global crisis, risking their own health and wellbeing.

Covid-19 has reached most of our countries now. But in many places, it still feels like the calm before the storm. Especially to health professionals, who will soon face the full impact of the pandemic at the frontline of care. They are worried about the number of serious illnesses they will have to treat. Will the mass of patients overburden our healthcare system? What if the images from Wuhan and Northern Italy become our own reality soon? It seems surreal to imagine a similar situation here at our own protected home.

The following guidelines for preserving family presence were co-developed by an international, multi-stakeholder “pop-up” coalition including patient, resident, family and elder advocates, experts in quality, safety and infection control, clinicians, policymakers, and healthcare executives from a variety of care settings. These recommendations for family presence across the continuum of care reflect the lived experiences of many who have been, in the moment, wrestling with and addressing the critical nature of this issue.

This is a data collection and reporting tool to support child health services during the COVID-19 pandemic. We ask representatives, such as the paediatric clinical lead, to respond on behalf of their Trust or Health Board on a weekly basis. Questions relate to service capacity, staffing, PPE, testing availability and child health outcomes. The data are reported back regularly to support service planning, and to be used as a tool to influence government and decision makers.

Meals and snacks from schools or child care centers fulfill up to two thirds of children’s daily nutritional needs and are generally healthier than those brought from home. The short-term health effects of missed meals include fatigue and reduced immune response, which increase the risk of contracting communicable diseases.

Information on the COVID-19 pandemic is changing quickly. While your local public health authority and children’s hospital will be among your primary sources of information, the Canadian Paediatric Society also has a number of resources to help you manage this rapidly evolving situation.

Despite increasing reports of some children with underlying conditions experiencing serious illness and even death, the vast majority of children and adolescents experience mild symptoms in response to SARS-CoV-2 infection. With over 90% of the world's students (more than 1·5 billion young people) currently out of education, it's clear that the greatest threats from COVID-19 to children and adolescents lie outside the clinic.

Data from China suggest that pediatric coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases might be less severe than cases in adults and that children (persons aged <18 years) might experience different symptoms than adults. In this preliminary description of pediatric U.S. COVID-19 cases, relatively few children with COVID-19 are hospitalized, and fewer children than adults experience fever, cough, or shortness of breath. Severe outcomes have been reported in children, including three deaths.

"Importantly, pediatric patients provide an opportunity to gain critical insight into disease pathogenesis and guide future vaccine or therapeutic development. Two main theories explaining the protective effect of age are currently being perused: (a) differences in pediatric immune responses as compared to adults, or (b) differences in airway epithelial cell make‐up affecting the availability of viral binding sites"

In this rapidly changing situation, media and social conversations are entirely dominated by the outbreak, and children are exposed to large amounts of information and high levels of stress and anxiety in the adults around them. Sensitive and effective communication about life-threatening illness has major benefits for children and their family’s long- term psychological wellbeing.

“We at CHFG have been listening to frontline staff in the UK and abroad to assess how we might support people through the current emergency. Many of our team have experience in high-pressure, high-stakes situations, the science of human factors and non-technical skills. The key human factors messages we want to share can be found in a PDF we have prepared.”

The language of compassion and love has traditionally been the language of poetry and literature. Recent advances in science have helped bring a scientific approach to considering compassion and love, with advances coming in the areas of neuroscience, psychology, sociology, and organizational behavior. Although epidemiology is commonly defined as the study of the incidence and distribution of diseases, it has much to offer in terms of compassion and love.

During this rapidly evolving and unprecedented pandemic, healthcare teams are working tirelessly to provide optimal care for patients and to safeguard their communities. As the situation becomes more serious in some regions, many healthcare organizations are reassessing their customary approach to family presence and visitation.

Given the nature of COVID-19, which is known to spread easily especially among the ill and the elderly, and can be transmitted by individuals who are asymptomatic, it is prudent to introduce temporary measures for managing family presence in a way that supports the need for physical distancing.

Here you will find examples of caring communication in a variety of situations people in healthcare are encountering today. These examples are not intended to be scripts. Instead, they illustrate what it might sound like to deliver your messages in a caring manner while tending to the many tasks that must get done.

Helen Riess, M.D., Founder, CEO of Empathetics, Inc. and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, explains that helping each other is what brings us together and enlivens our spirit and our communities, and it is needed now more than ever, locally, regionally, nationally, and globally.

These are the handsThat touch us firstFeel your headFind your pulseMake your bed— Michael Rosen, These are the hands: poems from the heart of the NHSThese are the hands of health and care staff who dedicate their lives to caring for others. And who are now committed to caring for their communities during a grave global crisis, risking their own health and wellbeing.

Covid-19 has reached most of our countries now. But in many places, it still feels like the calm before the storm. Especially to health professionals, who will soon face the full impact of the pandemic at the frontline of care. They are worried about the number of serious illnesses they will have to treat. Will the mass of patients overburden our healthcare system? What if the images from Wuhan and Northern Italy become our own reality soon? It seems surreal to imagine a similar situation here at our own protected home.